LOWER END OF THE SPECTRUM, PT. 2

The other day, I passed by a dog-walker talking on her phone. She was more than a little irritated at whoever she was speaking to. Her exact words were, "The problem isn't the problem. You're the problem!"

I rolled that diktat around my head for a while, wondering just what it meant. Yesterday, my cable company explained it to me in a way that I hadn't expected.

Take a number, Jim.

I was planning on watching the Comey hearing on my Kindle Fire while doing a major housecleaning, carrying the tablet around from bathroom to bedroom to kitchen. Politics, scrubbing the toilet, collecting the trash -- it's all the same.

If only Spectrum Cable had been so agreeable. Tapping the app on my Kindle Fire (would that have made sense to you a decade ago?) brought me to a warning that I was unable to watch MSNBC at that time, and to return later.

I tried CNN. Fox News. The major networks, the affiliates, stations I had never heard of, let alone watched -- every channel gave me the same message. You are unable to access this channel at the present time. Please try again later.

It was a rather strange thing. This had never happened before. And it's not like the cable service was out. TV, Wi-Fi, and phone all worked fine. Only the app was inapplicable. And it all came down to two words: Market Place.

Uh, to the poorhouse?

See, while cable companies are thrilled to offer their customers a handy app for their tablets, they prefer you watch TV on TV. Because the more you watch streaming TV on another device, the more you'll think What am I paying this greedy cable company $150 a month for? I can get most of my channels on streaming services for 35 bucks!

Spectrum cut its app service for several hours knowing that there'd be a big audience for the Comey show. Once it was over, it returned fresh and clean. Just their way of saying You wanna watch this? You're going to have to sit down in front that big screen in your living room. 

And good luck trying to get phone and internet without cable for less than what you're paying now for all three. Spectrum's cable has become a noose.

But Spectrum isn't the problem; I'm the problem for wanting to watch TV on whatever device I want at any given time.

Or, to put it presidentially: TV is a friend. I hope you let this tablet thing go. 

                                                    *****************